Author's Note:
This is a completed story, written in three parts. It's not part of my usual AU. As always, I love to hear from you! And yes, I'm still working on the sequels to Through A Glass Darkly.
Part One - Missing
She'd never met Hawkeye.
It was odd, when Darcy thought about it. Really odd. She knew all the other Avengers, War Machine, half of S.H.I.E.L.D., several Asgardians (that nutjob Loki, even) the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man (well, not his identity, but they'd talked. And he rolled his mask half up and ate a muffin she'd baked), several X-Men including that asshole Wolverine – but somehow, she'd never met Hawkeye. Even though apparently he'd been right there in New Mexico when this shitstorm all started.
Thor had been the first, the trigger for the crazy that was now her life. Then Coulson (rest in peace, Agent iPod Thief) and a number of what she'd then called jackbooted thugs and now called work colleagues. They mostly left after Puente Antiguo quieted down again, although she later discovered that the scientists who replaced them were all bloody S.H.I.E.L.D. too anyway.
Then came the suddenly suspicious transfer to Norway. The panicky, hysterical, S.H.I.E.L.D.-impeded race back to New York once Jane figured out why they were trying to keep her away. A maxed-out credit-card and flights via London and Iceland (yeah, Reykjavik, DULL) and they'd arrived in a very wrecked New York and got to Stark Tower – the place of the last sighting – right about the time Thor and Loki departed in a whoosh of blue light from Central Park.
Pepper Potts had been lovely and invited them to stay in Tony Stark's mansion. Stark, when he arrived, had also been lovely – very surprisingly given his reputation, but perhaps it had something to do with Jane's beautiful, tearful face or Darcy shoving her boobs aggressively at him while demanding answers – and insisted they stay, giving Jane lab space, Dr Banner as a science playmate and all the equipment and money she could ever want.
Darcy felt a bit useless, replaced by professionals as Jane delved ever deeper into Weird Magic/Science, until Pepper recruited her to help bring Steve Rogers into the modern world. S.H.I.E.L.D. had been doing their own version of that, but it all seemed a bit too much like indoctrination for both Darcy and Pepper's taste. Rogers had very sensibly taken some time off and disappeared on his motorbike for a while after Thor and Loki left, but he showed up back in Manhattan within the week. Couldn't stay away while there were still so many people who needed help. He was at first shocked by Darcy – even though she did her best to tone it down for him – but eventually seemed to adopt her as a sort of slightly insane little sister.
The Black Widow, Darcy met three weeks later, when she showed up at Avengers Tower – now almost completely rebuilt – with a broken arm and a silent rage so intense that even Tony shut up. Natasha barricaded herself in the apartment Tony had built for her for three days.
It was Darcy who asked JARVIS if Natasha had any food in there. And Darcy who scratched at the door and ran away, terrified, before it opened, but not before leaving a box of supplies on the floor. Including a dozen of her home-baked chocolate-caramel muffins.
A note pinned (with a thumbtack, though Darcy had half-expected a throwing knife, and wouldn't that have been creepy) to the door of Darcy's suite in the mansion two days later, said simply 'Thanks. Enjoyed the muffins.'
The handwriting was eerily neat. Particularly since the (very small, heavily redacted) file Darcy had been given on Natasha said she was right-handed, and it was her right arm in the cast. Darcy decided she was still going to be terrified, but it was difficult when Natasha walked into the Avengers Tower penthouse one day a month later when she, Pepper and Jane were having a girls' lunch, plonked two bottles of vodka on the table and said gruffly;
"This lunch isn't liquid enough."
It was Pepper who laughed first and went to fetch shot glasses from the bar. Jane, body weight negligible, was a cheap and affectionate drunk and half an hour later was leaning on Natasha's shoulder with the redhead assassin's arm around her shoulders, the two of them giggling as Jane retold her stories about running over Thor twice. Natasha gave Darcy an appraising, mildly respectful look when Jane told her about the Taser incident, and a couple of days later Darcy opened her door to a knock just after dawn to see Natasha there.
"I'm gonna train you to use more than just a Taser when shit goes down," Natasha said, easily the longest sentence Darcy had heard out of her so far.
Darcy would have protested, but frankly she was still too scared of the Russian.
Of course, the only thing training really managed to do for Darcy was to eliminate her survival instincts. So when things started exploding in the street nearby and she saw a fireball streaking to earth, she started running towards it, not away.
"Oh, I don't think so, sugar," a warm voice said astonishingly close to her ear, just as she got close enough to see a bunch of people in blue suits confronting a weird metal guy. "Not your fight," and she was swooped off her feet with a warm arm around her waist and suddenly flying through the air.
"What the actual fuck!" Darcy screamed when Spider-Man left her webbed to the helipad on Stark Tower (and how he knew where she belonged, she didn't want to know). Natasha cut her out about half an hour later, giggling under her breath all the while, telling her very firmly that they needed to work on her fight or flight instincts and that fight was definitely a last resort.
The kid (Fury told them that he was underage and that they should on no account give him alcohol) turned up a couple of days later and actually apologised. Darcy thanked him and tried to feed him – the poor boy was so thin – and after that he was always turning up when least expected. And most helpful.
The Fantastic Four stopped by too, and Johnny Storm made a point of seeking out Darcy and thanking her very gravely for trying to come and help them. Even though they had it under control. His mouth twitched while he said it and he didn't actually look her in the eyes, but she was used to that.
"Steve put you up to this, didn't he?" Darcy asked suspiciously. Once everyone had noticed (okay, she pointed out) that Johnny and Steve looked like virtual twins, a DNA test and database search had proved they were actually distant cousins. Johnny and Sue's great-grandma was Steve's aunt. Freaky but true. Actual, living family had grounded Steve more than anyone had believed possible. He'd thrown himself headlong into the modern world.
"No," Johnny looked innocent. Or tried. How he had the same face as Steve and couldn't at all pull off the innocent look when it was all Steve wore, no one could quite figure. "I wanted to come thank you all on my lonesome. And if you'd like to come on a date with me all on your lonesome…"
"Dream on," Darcy snorted. "I've heard about the queue. Flame off, Rocket Boy."
Susan Storm-Richards joined their girls' lunches, and even though she was possibly even more beautiful than Natasha – seriously, Darcy reckoned it came down to a preference for blondes or redheads – Sue too was incredibly likeable. Her husband disappeared into the science labs with Jane and Bruce and perhaps none of them would never have been seen or heard from again, except that London called.
Where Jane went, Darcy followed. Steve and Natasha were about to go on a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission, Tony was busy (as it turned out) getting his house in Malibu blown up and Pepper nearly killed, and they decided to leave Bruce behind to mind New York. With the Fantastic Four and Spidey, Hulk could handle anything that came up, surely.
With London came Ian, and although they did a bit of a weird flirty dance, and yes, she kissed him (once) when she thought she was going to die, dammit, it was a totally rubbish kiss. So Darcy dropped him – yes, literally – and headed back to New York on Jane's heels once London was cleaned up.
London was when the X-Men made their appearance in Darcy's life. The weather weirds had apparently alerted Storm and she collected a crew and came over to investigate, and stayed to help with the clean-up. Darcy liked Storm – all that serenity just made her want to bake – and seriously debated introducing her to Bruce. They could be Zen and fluffy-haired together. Rogue, Shadowcat and Iceman were lovely too. Wolverine? Could kiss her ass. Although he'd probably take that as an invitation.
They got back to New York just in time to find Natasha directing S.H.I.E.L.D. minions where to put Steve's limp body. He was alive but really messed up, and Natasha wasn't much better, though she'd picked Steve off the banks of the Potomac herself, dragged him on board the helicopter and refused to land anywhere but Stark Tower. Her trust in anything but the Avengers appeared to have been eliminated entirely. She even chased the minions out of the Tower once they'd settled Steve to her satisfaction.
Sue and Bruce patched both of them up physically and Darcy started – all over again, it seemed – on the psyches of both Steve and Natasha. All Steve could talk about was the Winter Soldier and how he had to find his friend Bucky. Natasha retreated into her grim silence, although she didn't barricade herself into her room this time, but let Darcy fuss over and feed her. She didn't speak for days.
Tony and Pepper returned with their own stories to tell. Tony's chest without its glowing blue light spooked all of them at first, and Pepper's glowing flamy eyes whenever she got irritated with Tony (every ten minutes) would never stop being creepy. But then Darcy had a sneaking suspicion that Pepper had superpowers even before Extremis. No one could be that efficient naturally.
Then Steve found Bucky and brought him back to the Tower, and their weird little family increased by one more crazy Russian with issues. Even though Bucky wasn't Russian. Just spoke it a lot.
Everything had sort of settled down again and Natasha had actually spoken a few words (mainly Russian, to Bucky) when Coulson turned up alive and threw them all back into shock when he walked into girls' lunch. He was going to be the Director of the new, improved S.H.I.E.L.D. and wanted them all on board. He was, of course, approaching the women first. He wasn't stupid. Any one of the men would probably have punched him into next week. Jane wasn't present, fortunately, because she would probably have attempted to punch him into next week as well. Or called Thor.
Maria Hill (the latest addition to the girls' lunches) just told him to fuck off. Darcy applauded and demanded her iPod back.
Coulson actually smiled, shook Maria's hand and wished her well, looked at a tight-lipped Natasha and nodded a little sadly.
"I'll see what I can do, Miss Lewis," he said. And then, on the way to the elevator, he turned and said to Natasha, "Where is Hawkeye, by the way?"
Darcy swore she hadn't blinked. But Natasha was suddenly holding Coulson up against the wall by his tie, a knife at his throat, shouting in Russian.
It took a forcefield from Sue to get her off him, and eventually they made Phil sit down and explain himself since Natasha was quite clearly lost in her own head, screaming in Russian still.
"I thought he was with her," Phil croaked, getting his tie-turned-noose loosened finally. "He's always with her."
"Oh," Pepper said in a tone of enlightenment. "Are they..? Tony wondered. Said they seemed close."
"Not like that," Coulson said. "They're just – close. It's kind of hard to explain. Look, I've been out of the loop a long time. The last I heard, they were off on a deep-cover mission together in – somewhere I can't tell you about. Right after the Battle of New York. When did Natasha come back?"
"Months ago," Darcy spoke, as everyone else was looking too stunned. "With a broken arm. But we've never seen Hawkeye. I've never even met him. Have any of you?"
They all nodded, even Storm, Rogue and Shadowcat. (Yes, girls' lunches had grown rather. What of it? They were badly outnumbered by the male superheroes. Even if Sif came along, as Darcy had invited her to).
"Huh. I think I'm jealous. I've only seen photos of Hawt Arms Guy," Darcy sulked, crossing her arms. Maria rolled her eyes at her in a shut the fuck up, you inappropriate idiot way.
"Natasha," Coulson turned to the Russian, actually looking concerned. "Agent Romanoff. Where and when did you last see Hawkeye?"
Natasha took a few minutes to control her breathing. "I thought he was out, and on another mission," she finally said accusingly to Maria. "A solo one."
Maria just shook her head. "There was no other mission, of that I'm sure. The last status update I had of him was before – well, before Washington and the Triskelion. Still undercover. And his file wasn't in your data dump, Natasha. I know you deleted it before you let it all go."
"I deleted the whole undercover database," Natasha said sullenly. "I had to, or they were all dead."
"You just left them all with no extraction plans," Coulson said rather coldly. "I've spent the last couple of weeks working with handlers to try and pull asses out of the fire all over, and some of them didn't make it. But no one seemed to know where Hawkeye was." He paused, seemed about to say something else, caught Maria's eye and seemed to change his mind. "Will he need extraction, Agent Romanoff?"
Natasha sank back into her chair, putting her face in her hands. "Coulson, by now he could be dead. Or worse." Her voice was almost breaking. Darcy couldn't help patting her on the back, even though she was slightly concerned about getting a knife in the ribs for her trouble.
"What's worse?" It was Sue Storm who asked what the others were all afraid to.
"The place in Poland was a biological research facility," it was Maria who answered after a few long moments of silence. "A HYDRA facility. Secret. And not in the databases – not even in the undercover one, because we knew there were leaks, and we didn't want anyone to know that we knew about it. Only Fury, myself, and agents Romanoff and Barton knew of its existence."
"We were sent in to infiltrate," Natasha took up the story. "Clint was going to join the local workforce and get in on the ground floor as a grunt. Work his way up the security hierarchy. I was there to seduce a scientist – any scientist. Find out what the fuck was going on, because the place was so damn secretive no one knew anything. We didn't even know exactly where the facility was."
"What went wrong, Natasha?" Coulson asked, not unkindly. "How did you break your arm?"
"Stupid, stupid fucking accident," she sighed wearily. "I'd finally got one of the nerds to look up from his test tubes. He was taking me out to dinner, I put my hand on his thigh and he crashed the fucking car. Killed himself instantly and I broke my arm. Woke up in the local hospital. One of my local contacts let me know that HYDRA – paranoid bastards – didn't think the death was an accident and they were coming for me. I bugged out as per protocol. Getting picked up by the Russian mob is one thing, HYDRA's quite another," she seemed to be trying to justify herself to Coulson and Maria, who both nodded reassuringly.
"You were quite right," Maria said, "and Hawkeye confirmed through message channels a few days later. He actually got a promotion because he pointed the finger at you. After sending your local contact to tip you off."
"Jeez, he sold you out? Cold," Kitty Pryde commented. Rogue nudged her to silence.
"He'd already assured her safety," Coulson said firmly.
"And he'd been checking in through channels regularly," Maria said, "letting us know that he was still on mission."
Natasha sighed. "Lying bastard. He knew I wouldn't have left him in there alone for long. He sent me messages privately that the mission was finished and he'd been reassigned."
"Wait, wait," Darcy said while they all digested that. "What's all this about messages? Surely he can't just be emailing you from a secure HYDRA facility?"
Natasha looked amused. "Simple things, Darcy, prearranged signals. Ordering a certain e-book or magazine going to his cover identity's Kindle. The message can mean anything from get me the fuck out of here now to meet me in Caesar's Palace next Wednesday. Hawkeye checks in with me at least once a week or he knows damn well I'll be coming to get him. His next check-in isn't due until tomorrow, which means he could have been compromised for six days already."
"So you two do have a thing?" Darcy asked intelligently.
"Not the kind of thing you're thinking about," was the dry response. "We did once, about ten years ago. But Clint likes his women exclusive and I – can't do that. He was married once, wasn't he Coulson?"
"That didn't last long," Coulson said drily. "Agent Morse didn't do the exclusive thing either. And she didn't have your excuse – er, excellent reasons."
"Oh dear, poor Agent Barton," Pepper said.
There was surely a story behind the way Maria, Natasha and Coulson all snorted and rolled their eyes, but it was going to have to wait for another time.
Pepper took command after a few moments of silence. She pointed sternly at Coulson. "Get out."
He raised his eyebrows at her and gave her his unimpressed face.
"No," Pepper responded. "Because right now we can't trust any SHIELD resources. And neither can you. We have to move fast because it's only a matter of time before someone who used to be SHIELD winds up at that HYDRA facility and Hawkeye is recognised. If it's not already too late. It's been weeks already since the breakdown and so many people are unaccounted for."
Natasha shivered, and Pepper spared her a glance but carried on ruthlessly. "We don't have time for you to waste figuring out who you can trust and who you can't. So get out. We'll take care of this on our own."
Coulson took a moment to rake his eyes around the room, obviously deciding if everyone there was to be trusted with Hawkeye's safety. Darcy decided not to feel insulted that his eyes lingered longest on her when she realised that she was the only person present without superpowers (Maria's icy calm totally counted as a superpower).
"Good luck," was all Coulson said before the elevator doors closed behind him.
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